How to search for pentaquarks in high energy hadronic interactions

The strange-anticharmed Pentaquark is a uudc̅s or uddc̅s five-quark baryon that is expected to be either a narrow resonance, or possibly even stable against strong and electromagnetic decay. We describe this hyperon here, its structure, binding energy and lifetime, resonance width, production mechanisms, production cross sections, and decay modes. We describe techniques to reduce backgrounds in search experiments and to optimize the conditions for Pentaquark observation. Possibilities for enhancing the signal over background in Pentaquark searches are investgated by examining predictions for detailed momentum and angular distributions in multiparticle final states. We consider a loosely bound molecule and also a strongly-bound five-quark system. Fermilab E791 data, currently being analyzed, may have marginal statistics for showing definitive signals. Future experiments in the spirit of the recent CHARM2000 workshop, such as FNAL E781 and CERN COMPASS with 10⁶−10⁷ reconstructed charmed baryon events, should have sensitivity to determine whether or not the Pentaquark exists.